Folsom, CA Accessory Structures: Shed & Carport Rules (2026)

060(B) governs detached garages and accessory buildings, including sheds, citywide outside the historic district. A detached garage or accessory building of one story, without living quarters, may occupy no more than 50 percent of the area of a required rear yard. The code allows a taller exception: a garage or similar outbuilding up to 15 feet high at the ridge may be built on the side or rear lot line if it sits at least 75 feet from any street, while otherwise keeping a 5-foot clear distance for side and rear yards.

Any garage or accessory building not physically attached to the main house must maintain at least 8 feet of clear distance from that main building, a separation the code calls out specifically to prevent sheds from crowding the primary structure. 060 also caps total accessory floor area: the combined floor area of every accessory structure on a parcel, apart from an accessory dwelling unit or second unit, cannot exceed 50 percent of the habitable floor area of the primary residential dwelling on the same parcel, though the planning commission may grant an exception through a conditional use permit.

Subsection (C) adds a corner-lot rule: on a lot that fronts two streets, no detached accessory building can be erected, altered, or moved into the front half of the lot. 480 rather than this chapter's floor-area cap. A building permit is required before construction under the city's adopted building code regardless of which standard applies.